Texas Rangers Blog

Rangers 9, White Sox 5: Vladimir Guerrero expects to play Thursday

CHICAGO – This could only happen to Vladimir Guerrero. He’s the only guy who hits the ball so hard he can knock himself out. But that’s exactly what he did Wednesday, ricocheting a ball off the top of the batting cage during batting practice only to have it come down and hit him above the left eye. The concussive sound and the immediate swelling caused some anxious moments for the Rangers, but by the end of the night, Guerrero was laughing and saying he had been prepared to pinch hit if needed.
Guerrero underwent X-rays that showed no break of any of the bones around his eye. It is expected the swelling will diminish greatly overnight and he should be able to return to the lineup on Thursday. Guerrero said a hospital exam revealed he did not have any diminished sight in the eye, which he claimed was still 20/20.

When told he looked like he had just been in a boxing match, Guerrero replied: “I fought until the very last round.”

• You wouldn’t call RHP Scott Feldman’s night a “breakthrough,” in the traditional sense. Conventional wisdom is that such a game would be seven- or eight- innings of shutout or one-run baseball, a bunch of strikeouts, something like that. For Feldman, the “breakthrough” has become a process. His eight innings of work on Wednesday represented another step in that process. It was a significant step.

After getting frustrated early in the season and perhaps trying to get his season back to respectability in one outing, Feldman has realized he couldn’t do that. That his season would only start to look better over time. So he’s tried to shorten the scope of what constitutes progress, going from one batter to one inning to one turn through the lineup.

Mostly that’s meant being able to locate his fastball better. And being able to repeat it when he does.

“It doesn’t all come back in one start,” Feldman said. “You just have to go out and do what you can and build on it for the next time. My numbers aren’t going to improve dramatically with one start. It was just frustrating to see my ERA so high and to struggle so badly. But if I can put things together from here on out, slowly, over time, things will start to look better.”

While Feldman’s season ERA remains high at 5.82, he is the innings-eater for the staff. He became the first pitcher in more than two weeks to go at least seven innings. He was also the last guy to do it on May 15. Feldman has averaged exactly seven innings over his last four starts.

• A week ago, it looked like the Matt Treanor experience was collapsing under the weight of having to catch every day. He hit only .158 between May 6-23 and his average briefly dipped back below .200. But the combination of the Rangers’ three off days in the last two weeks and the club’s willingness to let Max Ramirez start some back-to-back games seems to have refreshed him. Treanor, who had two hits, a homer and four RBIs Wednesday, has started six times in the last 12 days. He is hitting .313 on the current road trip. He’s pushed his batting average back over .220 (it’s .221) for the first time since May 6.

By massaging his playing time, the Rangers might be able to extend his freshness and, with it, his effectiveness.

• 3B Michael Young was moved to DH when Vladimir Guerrero was scratched. In his first start of the season at DH, Young was 3-for-5. Why should you not be surprised? Young is now 40-for-101 (.396) when he is the DH. It should be noted, though, that Young hit only .250 in 10 games as the DH between 2007-09. Young remains the only Ranger to start every game this season.

Young began the three-run first-inning rally with a double and drove home the first run of the second inning. Just for good measure, his two-out, two-run single in the fifth gave the Rangers an 8-2 lead.

• 2B Ian Kinsler had three fly ball outs in four plate appearances Wednesday. It evened his fly ball and ground balls for the season at 38 apiece. A year ago, Kinsler fell into a rut with the worst ground ball to fly ball rate of his career (0.58). After a very hot first two weeks of last season, Kinsler fell into a season-long pattern of hitting too many fly balls. Is the same thing happening? He hit .308 with a .455 OBP for his first two weeks after coming off the DL. In the 15 games since, he’s hitting .246 with a .308 OBP.

• 1B Justin Smoak did not have a hit, but did reach base twice. Smoak has a .385 OBP on the road trip, second only to Michael Young on the team.

• On a night when he went hitless in three at-bats and saw his batting average fall below .200 to .195, INF Andres Blanco deserves a lot of credit. He made two very nice plays at third base, which is what the utility infielder is supposed to do. Only, it was his first action of any kind since May 16. It was also his first start of the season at third. And he didn’t even have a chance to do extra work there Wednesday since he wasn’t in the original lineup.

• RHP Brandon McCarthy will be activated on Thursday at Triple-A Oklahoma City and will pitch out of the bullpen there.